I'm in awe. I love my iPhone and I have had everyone of them since the 3g. But I did happen to attend the Samsung world tour even in NYC last night, and I must say that technology is moving right along without Apple it seems. The Note 2 had some never before seen killer features that had me drueling. The worst part about it is how I wished it were an apple product but I'd never see the day where they put so much into 1 phone at one time. It's crazy but I sat there and tried to rationalize how the iPhone was better as if it were my job, but in the end I faced reality. It ran just as smooth as my iPhone 5, the voice assistant worked well, and the camera was clear as day. Android is closing in on iOS bigtime. Small screens with boring icon layout won't cut it for long, I bet money that Apple changes its ways soon.

Don't stay with Apple just because of the brand. If other companies make better products (in YOUR opinion) then buy their products.

Personally I am moving away from android to an iphone.
One more thing: the Note runs nearly as smooth as the iphone with it's Quadcore 1.6 Ghz Exynos 4 (4 ARM 9 cores)
This thing consumes (together with the display) massive power
According to Anandtech the 3100mAh (2.1 times the sizes of the iphone 5) battery just holds for about 6 hours surfing the web, while the iPhone manages about 8.

While's I cannot speak for the Note, I did try my hand at a Galaxy S3 for 3 weeks before the iPhone 5 release. It is nice and smooth for approximately 1 or 2 days... and then after you load it with apps and actually use the thing... filling up the RAM and such... it SLOOOOWS down! The Touchwiz overlay has a lot to do with it. Once I rooted and loaded up a AOSP ROM it was better.... no Touchwiz... but then you lose a lot of the functionality that Samsung put into the phone.

Everytime I have had an iPhone... it just works and always works well until... I jailbreak and add crap...

Don't stay with Apple just because of the brand. If other companies make better products (in YOUR opinion) then buy their products.

Personally I am moving away from android to an iphone.
One more thing: the Note runs nearly as smooth as the iphone with it's Quadcore 1.6 Ghz Exynos 4 (4 ARM 9 cores)
This thing consumes (together with the display) massive power
According to Anandtech the 3100mAh (2.1 times the sizes of the iphone 5) battery just holds for about 6 hours surfing the web, while the iPhone manages about 8.

So I guess the technology behind Apples A6 is not bad at all!

Click to expand...

This is exactly what is great about Apple.

They don't throw every brand new whizbang feature into a phone without thinking about how it impacts the phone's size and battery life. I bet if the iPhone 4S had gotten LTE, the battery life would have been crap because LTE chipsets weren't that energy efficient yet at the time.

The iPad could afford to get LTE earlier because of its massive battery.

If you must have lots of whizbang features, then Android is for you. If you want a reliable phone that isn't big like a brick and gives you decent battery life, get an iPhone.

There are choices for everyone; that's what's wonderful about competition (and why I wish companies would stop suing each other over ridiculous patents)

While's I cannot speak for the Note, I did try my hand at a Galaxy S3 for 3 weeks before the iPhone 5 release. It is nice and smooth for approximately 1 or 2 days... and then after you load it with apps and actually use the thing... filling up the RAM and such... it SLOOOOWS down! The Touchwiz overlay has a lot to do with it. Once I rooted and loaded up a AOSP ROM it was better.... no Touchwiz... but then you lose a lot of the functionality that Samsung put into the phone.

Everytime I have had an iPhone... it just works and always works well until... I jailbreak and add crap...

I hear ya and I always enjoy hearin from those with experience with other devices.

Though I must say, whenever I buy new apple phones I can't wait until a jailbreak is released so that I can feel as if I have some control over my device and seperate myself from others. This does slow iOS down a bit and makes it buggy as hell at times but it works.

I've had in-store time with the gs3 and it had its smooth moments and not so smooth, but this galaxy note 2 which is on android latest OS I think and project butter has it running flawlessly with multiple apps open and reviews show the same with excellent battery life.

Galaxy Note II is leaps and bounds ahead of ip5. Its not even a fair comparison. It all comes down to two things: 1). Love for ios and 2). Don't like big massive screens. If you have these two things marked then no need for comparison, just buy an iphone and pretend nothing else is out there.

I think jailbreaking makes up for a lot of the whizbangery..... You get a lot of cool little tweaks and a level of customization pretty much on par with android but still maintain the iOS ecosystem and Apple reliability. In my opinion thats the perfect compromise and the reason why I've never gotten curious about android..... I did mess around with a Nexus 2 last year and used it for a few days but the disorganized and un-uniformed nature of Android just drove me bananas.... I'm so used to the elegant, seamless nature of iOS.

Project butter really has improved the UI experience on android. My colleagues' nexus 7 feels way ahead of my SGS2.
If you only keep a device for a year then android has some great advantages. I still think the OS is better than iOS. That said if you buy into a 2 year deal and then are at the mercy of your manufacturer updating, it can be a little frustrating. Yes you can get round this with rooting but this is why I'm clearly destined for tan iPhone as I don't have the time and iOS just works for me..

Galaxy Note II is leaps and bounds ahead of ip5. Its not even a fair comparison. It all comes down to two things: 1). Love for ios and 2). Don't like big massive screens. If you have these two things marked then no need for comparison, just buy an iphone and pretend nothing else is out there.

Click to expand...

I do love iOS and the ecosystem. And I loved the new real estate of the IPhone 5 UNTIL I found out that my phone with the otter box case fits into the screen of the galaxy note 2!!! Fml. Yes the phone is huge but I'm one that will learn to live with the cons if the pros outnumber them and frankly, who wouldn't want to watch movies or play games or surf the web on a huge screen?

Idk if I'm ready to make the switch just yet given how much I've invested and familiarity with the way things work. But I'd love if apple could hear consumers out and add just a fraction of the features that samsung and android implements in their devices.

I'm in awe. I love my iPhone and I have had everyone of them since the 3g. But I did happen to attend the Samsung world tour even in NYC last night, and I must say that technology is moving right along without Apple it seems. The Note 2 had some never before seen killer features that had me drueling. The worst part about it is how I wished it were an apple product but I'd never see the day where they put so much into 1 phone at one time. It's crazy but I sat there and tried to rationalize how the iPhone was better as if it were my job, but in the end I faced reality. It ran just as smooth as my iPhone 5, the voice assistant worked well, and the camera was clear as day. Android is closing in on iOS bigtime. Small screens with boring icon layout won't cut it for long, I bet money that Apple changes its ways soon.

They don't throw every brand new whizbang feature into a phone without thinking about how it impacts the phone's size and battery life. I bet if the iPhone 4S had gotten LTE, the battery life would have been crap because LTE chipsets weren't that energy efficient yet at the time.

The iPad could afford to get LTE earlier because of its massive battery.

If you must have lots of whizbang features, then Android is for you. If you want a reliable phone that isn't big like a brick and gives you decent battery life, get an iPhone.

There are choices for everyone; that's what's wonderful about competition (and why I wish companies would stop suing each other over ridiculous patents)

Click to expand...

EXACTLY. And this is why it's so frustrating having a conversation with a die hard Android fan who's attracted to all the bells, whistles and gimmicky technology. It might take Apple awhile (LTE), but they achieve the same or better success while using half the battery life of most Android devices. That's quality.

Galaxy Note II is leaps and bounds ahead of ip5. Its not even a fair comparison. It all comes down to two things: 1). Love for ios and 2). Don't like big massive screens. If you have these two things marked then no need for comparison, just buy an iphone and pretend nothing else is out there.

Click to expand...

This is my thing, the screen is way too big in my opinion and I love the simplicity of the iPhone. Any decent android is huge and it doesn't feel like you have a phone but more a tablet and I don't want that.

Your comparing phablet features to a smartphone... Dual windows on a phone that big makes sense, it doesnt make sense on a iPhone. Android may have more features, but alot of them are gimmicky and broken. The core functionality of Android still does not compare to iOS. Its much quicker to jump aroud and do things on a iPhone then a Android. The ecosystem on iPhones is unmatched, and multi touch on Android still has ways to go.

One of the biggest things about Android was Flash on their browser, but you dont have that anymore on the Google Play store. So if a new comer wanted and was expectin Flash well sorry to break it to you it doesnt have that anymore.

Thats not to say Android isnt a great OS, it most definetly is catching up to iOS, but the unison of hardware and software on iOS is what gives iOS a big lead in my opinion.

NFC? Big deal thats nothing special in my opinion, the multishot camera features and stuff like that is nice though i will admit. Theres some things Android has and somethings iOS doesnt have, and theres something iOS has that Android doesnt have.

In the end i ultimately think the core functionality of the OS's is still much better on iOS. For ex. Copy and paste is so much better on iOS. I had a GS3 and it is not as good, the highlighted text jumps around alot, the pinch to zoom isnt as good as iOS..there is many more too but until Android can fix up its core functinality, iOS imo will have a leg up on it.

EXACTLY. And this is why it's so frustrating having a conversation with a die hard Android fan who's attracted to all the bells, whistles and gimmicky technology. It might take Apple awhile (LTE), but they achieve the same or better success while using half the battery life of most Android devices. That's quality.

Click to expand...

What do you mean Apple implements features MUCH better then Android does. I can get a good solid 6-7 hours on good coverage LTE with the 1440 mAh battery. I would get like 4-5 hours of LTE on my old GS3 even though the battery is much bigger. Thats pure engineering talent and shows how hardware and software that is made for each other is much better then Androids current strategy.

I was wowed by Android during the iPhone 4 but moved back for the 4S. I still check out Android now and then but like iOS better. If one day Android looks better then I will ditch iPhone for Android again.

I had the original iphone, then upgraded to the 3GS. From there, I went with the Samsung Infuse which I kept for almost a year and a half. Meanwhile, my wife stayed with Apple from original to 3G all the way to 4S. While she hates the computer syncing with iphones, she never thought about leaving for android.

I was happy with the Samsung for the most part. Can you say features, features, features galore!!!? However, I decided to look at Apple again with the iPhone 5. I ended up switching back to Apple and all I can say is I don't think I'll ever switch again. I'll be the first to admit, Androids kill iPhones in terms of feature sets but they are nowhere near as seamless, intuitive and easy to use like iPhones. The iPhone may not do as much as the SG3 but what it does do, it is miles ahead of Samsung.

Galaxy Note II is leaps and bounds ahead of ip5. Its not even a fair comparison. It all comes down to two things: 1). Love for ios and 2). Don't like big massive screens. If you have these two things marked then no need for comparison, just buy an iphone and pretend nothing else is out there.

Click to expand...

Not even close to being accurate.

It comes down to these things:

1. Features that work. Apple does screw up sometimes, but by and large, a feature is released or enabled only after it works well. Samsung and others, on the other hand, will gladly throw a ton of half-baked, buggy features to the wall and see what sticks.

2. Better apps. We see it over and over again. X app won't work on Y Android devices because of screen or other feature issues. And when it does work the experience is diminished. iOS apps are easier to design interfaces for, and that's what makes them by and large, better.

3. Better service. My iPhone is giving me trouble? I walk into an Apple store and get it fixed. Got a problem with a Samsung Galaxy SIII? You'll have to deal with your carrier's repair subcontractors. Good luck with that.

So going by your standard: if you like buggy features, unstable software, an overall worse user interface among apps, and an inconsistent warranty service experience, go Android, right?

1. Features that work. Apple does screw up sometimes, but by and large, a feature is released or enabled only after it works well. Samsung and others, on the other hand, will gladly throw a ton of half-baked, buggy features to the wall and see what sticks.

2. Better apps. We see it over and over again. X app won't work on Y Android devices because of screen or other feature issues. And when it does work the experience is diminished. iOS apps are easier to design interfaces for, and that's what makes them by and large, better.

3. Better service. My iPhone is giving me trouble? I walk into an Apple store and get it fixed. Got a problem with a Samsung Galaxy SIII? You'll have to deal with your carrier's repair subcontractors. Good luck with that.

So going by your standard: if you like buggy features, unstable software, an overall worse user interface among apps, and an inconsistent warranty service experience, go Android, right?

Click to expand...

Number 3 for me.
The day apple stop offering the excellent service that they do is the day I jump. It's why I buy their products.

I'm in awe too. Of Samsung's ability to sucker over ten million people into buying these colossal phones. Their marketing dept is easily as good as Apple's.

Click to expand...

lol @ "sucker people into buying" What do you think apple is doing with the iPad Mini? Next year its going to be iPad Mini with "RETINA DISPLAY" and another couple million suckers will buy into that...Business as usual. My question to Apple would be (yet already knowing the REAL answer) why didn't you implement the "RETINA DISPLAY" to the previous iPad Mini...They would probably pull a George W. Bush and say its not about money making..lol

1. Features that work. Apple does screw up sometimes, but by and large, a feature is released or enabled only after it works well. Samsung and others, on the other hand, will gladly throw a ton of half-baked, buggy features to the wall and see what sticks.

2. Better apps. We see it over and over again. X app won't work on Y Android devices because of screen or other feature issues. And when it does work the experience is diminished. iOS apps are easier to design interfaces for, and that's what makes them by and large, better.

3. Better service. My iPhone is giving me trouble? I walk into an Apple store and get it fixed. Got a problem with a Samsung Galaxy SIII? You'll have to deal with your carrier's repair subcontractors. Good luck with that.

So going by your standard: if you like buggy features, unstable software, an overall worse user interface among apps, and an inconsistent warranty service experience, go Android, right?

Click to expand...

Actually this is inaccurate too.

What it comes down to:

1. A device that suits your needs the best.

iPhone may work the best for you and I but certainly not for everyone.

Imo the only thing that sets Apple and Samsung apart as far as phones go are the app developers. I dont know much about developing but it doesnt take a genius to realize how apps run better in iOS than on Android. Ive had both for years and thats the ONE BIG difference between the two.

I think the Note II is a fantastic device, but it is not going after iPhone5 buyers, it's for a select crowd.

The Note II with it's large screen and stylus make for a good business device, to take on job sites and meetings, the stylus makes it a nice work phone. And the specs are top notch, making it a very fast with butter smooth performance, and pretty good battery life, for such a large and beautiful screen.

But the iPhone5 should not be compared to the Note II, two different sports. The Note II is a hybrid device, a mix of Smartphone + Tablet + Laptop, all rolled into a portable device. But it is not just a smartphone.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.